Tenkar's Tavern

Sunday, May 22, 2022

Found a Cool New Board Game Aid

I'm starting to loathe travelling for work.......I know, you don't care, I wouldn't in your shoes either. After my month in Germany I got a whopping 30 hours back home where I discovered one of my cats had passed (probably a week prior) and then on my turn-around trip I had my plane ride/seat cancelled five times, resulting in an overnight stay in O'hare (Terminal K was so much fun) and eventually a 6 hour car ride in a vehicle that costs 3x normal.

Again....why should you care?

Like so many things, my "normal" life inspires my gaming projects and everything effed up about my travels is inspiring me to figure out a rather large d30 travel table. I actually had a rough-up for today's post, but I'm not happy with the numbers and if you get too many events the whole table is worthless, at least in my eyes. Hopefully I can get it done by next weekend.

On a plus side, for me, being back in the US of A means I can finally get my ass to a game store. It's a minor fix for my gaming addiction, but a fix is a fix. The closest store to my current location was so much "meh", but I did manage to pick up a new tiny board game that was good for 1-4 players: Tiny Epic Dungeons (link to original Kickstarter). This game store was more a CCG place with maybe one bookshelf of RPGs (all 5E) and another with board games. If it wasn't a CCG it wasn't priced, which was a turn off. Ends up I got this for the same price as the Kickstarter, but without shipping, so I figured why not? I'm hoping that I find it a fun game to play solo.

Now once again I fully expect the patrons here at the tavern to not really care so much about me getting a new game, especially since I'm not reviewing it.....BUT WAIT!!! THERE'S MORE!

This small game box has quite a few small bits and bobs, along with a rather lengthy rule booklet. Not really something I'm going to warm up to quickly....BUT there is a freaking cool interactive game tutorial on Dized.com.

I have never heard of dized tutorials and I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you haven't either. There are only about 40 tutorials right now, but there are some big name games here. The big deal here is that it is interactive and you basically play along with your game, enabling you to learn-as-you-go. There is a Dized app that allows you to download the rules, with search and FAQ, as well as the tutorial. Download what you need on the app (or even just online), grab your game, and just get going.

I'm really hoping that this app gets expanded because I would simply love to have a one-source go-to for instructions and tutorials for my many board games. Right now I have this accordian binder filled with a crap-ton of single page instructions & booklets. Just the multitude of Munchkin rules is a mess of sheets.

Saturday, May 21, 2022

DTRPG Site Was Hacked on Friday, May 20th, 2022

I was wondering why DTRPG was down on the evening of May 20th, 2022. Then I had the following forwarded to me:

Meredith Gerber (She/Her) — Today at 10:27 PM
MAY 2022 SECURITY UPDATE
In the afternoon of May 20th, 2022, we had a security incident on site that we continue to actively investigate. We have no evidence that any customer account data was compromised.
A third party was able to set prices on titles that they were not authorized to modify, and they set the prices of many titles on site to free which led to some customers placing orders for free titles that were not meant to be free. We shut down the site shortly after this began to happen.
@Publisher & @CC Creator:
We are restoring the site to service, however, for the time being, there will be no access to the normal tool pages to enter or edit titles or to manage bundle titles. We continue to investigate these pages for any security issues and will restore them as soon as we can. Files can still be updated with the normal update file tool page.
Publishers may still use the main publisher hub title search to find and make some edits to titles.
In the coming week, we will analyze any titles that were ordered at incorrect prices and make restitution to publishers and creators whose titles were affected.
We will continue to post messages to Discord, publisher hub, and social media as our investigation continues.

Interestingly enough, there was no mention of this incident on the DTRPG Facebook page.

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You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on YouTube - Tenkar

Friday, May 20, 2022

Humble Bundle - Heavy Metal Comics Bundle

I remember Heavy Metal Magazine from back in my teens years, and it always had and least one comic story that blew me away. For the time, it certainly pushed the envelope, and to find it still being published 45 years after its debut in digital format is nothing short of amazing.

Issue 316 is the latest issue of Heavy Metal, and the bundle includes issues 307-315 as well as a large number of trade paperback collections. I'm in for 25 bucks for the Heavy Metal Comics Humble Bundle. I've got a few weeks of comics reading ahead of me it seems. 51 titles will last a long time ;)

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on YouTube - Tenkar

Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

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